The FBI and other federal investigators have uncovered a major issue when launching a probe into potential issues with the upcoming November election.
Federal investigators have launched a probe into potential issues with mail-in voting in Luzerne County, including the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI. Authorities announced Thursday that discarded mail-in ballots cast for President Trump by military members were discovered in Pennsylvania.
“At this point we can confirm that a small number of military ballots were discarded. Investigators have recovered nine ballots at this time,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Middle District of Pennsylvania reported.
The attorney’s office announced on September 24th that FBI agents, working alongside the Pennsylvania State Police, have reviewed physical evidence and conducted multiple interviews.
So far, investigators have reported that county election officials have been cooperating with the federal probe.
Military and overseas voters are able to register and request an absentee ballot at any time prior to an election, according to the county’s website.
“Democrats are trying to steal the election,” said Matt Wolking, a spokesman for the Trump campaign.
https://twitter.com/MattWolking/status/1309186316635197442
President Trump has been warning of potential issues with the increase in mail-in voting this year due to COVID, as have many other Trump administration officials, including Attorney General William Barr.
While speaking with reporters in Washington on Thursday, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany pointed to the myriad of issues that have been uncovered recently from increased mail-in voting without proper safety precautions, including a botched election in Paterson, New Jersey, and multiple criminal allegations in California.
800 ballots were invalidated because they were found in various places bundled together. That’s illegal. Paterson is going to re-run its election in November. @rodrigotorrejon 3/9 #MailInVoting https://t.co/fj9OsiJGgK
— njdotcom (@njdotcom) August 20, 2020
“In 2016, you had 1 percent of ballots thrown out, absentee ballots, that amounted to 319,000 votes thrown out. And if you have the entirety of the country voting by mail, you can imagine that number would be many folds higher than that,” McEnany stated.